No-nb bldsa through time

Batumi 1885–2012 16 photos of this spot

16 photographs taken at the same spot in Batumi, spanning 1885–2012 — 14 of them from before 1980. Line them up and watch the place change.

A bridge spanning the Adjaristsqali River near Batumi, photographed in 1885 when the Black Sea port town was still a modest settlement within the Russian Empire's Caucasus region.

Batum. Adjaris-Tskhali bridge 1885 A bridge spanning the Adjaristsqali River near Batumi, photographed in 1885 when the Black Sea port town was still a modest settlement within the Russian Empire's Caucasus region.

Batumi oil reservoirs and oil train 1885 Oil storage tanks and a freight train at Batumi, photographed in 1885, not long after the port's rail connection to the Baku oilfields turned it into a major outlet for Caucasus petroleum exports.

Lake Nurie-Gol at Batum 1885 A view of Lake Nurie-Gol in the lowlands near Batumi, photographed in 1885. The lake lay close to the Black Sea coast in a region rapidly developing under Russian imperial administration in the late 19th century.

Батум. Железнодорожная пристань. Фотопленки Поля Надара (1890) 1890 The railway pier at Batumi, photographed in 1890 during Paul Nadar's travels through the Caucasus, when the port functioned as the terminus of the rail line carrying oil from Baku.

Батум. Общий вид (слева — пожарное депо). Фотопленки Поля Надара (1890) 1890 A general view of Batumi from 1890, with the town's fire station visible on the left; the image is credited to the French photographer Paul Nadar, who toured the Caucasus that year.

Батум. Порт. Фотопленки Поля Надара (1890) 1890 The port of Batumi photographed in 1890 by Paul Nadar; by this date the harbor had grown in importance as the Black Sea outlet for Baku's oil trade, carried west by a rail line completed in 1883.

Boulevard Beach 2. XIX Century 1899 Batumi's seaside boulevard in the closing years of the 19th century, part of the promenade that helped define the young Black Sea port town after its designation as a free port in 1878.

Boulevard Beach 3. XIX Century 1899 Another view of Batumi's beach boulevard from the late 1800s, showing the developing seafront of a Georgian port city that had only recently passed from Ottoman to Russian control in 1878.

Magnolia Alley 1899 A tree-lined magnolia alley in Batumi, photographed in the late 19th century; the town's mild Black Sea climate made it well suited to ornamental gardens.

EU: Αλέα στο Βατούμ. (1901) 1901 An alley in Batumi, Georgia, photographed in 1901. The Black Sea port had passed from Ottoman to Russian control in 1878 and was growing rapidly at the turn of the century as construction proceeded on a pipeline that would soon link it to the Baku oil fields.

Batum. General view from the east (1900s) 1905 Batumi seen from the east in a photograph from the 1900s, when the Black Sea port was a growing center of the Caucasus oil trade, linked by rail to the Baku oilfields since 1883.

General view of bay from Fort II, Batum 1905 The bay of Batumi as seen from Fort II, photographed around 1905; the fortification overlooked the harbor of a Black Sea port city that had become a strategic point for Russian trade and defense.

EU: Batoum. Le quai et l' hôtel Belle-vue. (1914) 1914 The quay and the Hotel Belle-Vue at Batumi, photographed in 1914, when the Black Sea port was a growing center of the Russian Empire's oil export trade.

No-nb bldsa 1925 A 1925 photograph of Batumi held in the National Library of Norway's collection, showing the Black Sea port city at a time when it had recently become part of Soviet Georgia, within the newly formed Soviet Union.

Batumi. shopping corner 2010 A shopping street corner in Batumi, Georgia, photographed in 2010. Batumi, a port city on the Black Sea coast, has long served as a commercial gateway for the wider Caucasus region.

Adjara 2012 This 2012 photograph was taken in the Adjara region of Georgia, on the Black Sea coast around the port city of Batumi, an autonomous republic within the country known for its subtropical climate.